


Reptile

by tenderguns



Series: Ruiner [4]
Category: At Dead Of Night (Video Game)
Genre: Maya is so done, NIN title ofc, Other, dr bose comforts maya, dr bose is a sweetheart, gearing up to a sad sad ending, jimmy tries to protect maya except his idea sucks, maya being best girl ofc, maya is not gonna let jimmy clap these cheeks no matter how much food he leaves her, this is where it starts getting sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29735628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenderguns/pseuds/tenderguns
Summary: Jimmy's attempts to protect Maya from himself do not go as planned.
Relationships: Jimmy Hall | Hugo Punch & Maya, Jimmy Hall/Maya - one sided
Series: Ruiner [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2181951
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	Reptile

Judas Iscariot doomed Jesus to death with a kiss and _this is what Jimmy did to me_ thinks Maya when she comes to. She can’t bring herself to open her eyes. She knows what she’ll be met with. The pattern is the same. Down to the grim cry of her blood to stop its course once and for all. The pain, for once, is everywhere but her head; her ribs scream at every breath; her ankles crunch sickeningly at a twitch of the foot; a dull ache burns between her legs. The world is all black and agony. The floor, all soothing cool metal under her back, is a single loveliness in the dark.

The metal floor... Maya opens her eyes at the surrealism of the thought. She does not see the popcorn ceiling of room 101. She sees more metal. Scrambling to sit up, ignoring the grating of her ribs and the shock of pain it sends jolting down her side, she looks around her. It takes a few moments to realise that she is in the black and blues of the hotel kitchen. Oh, of _course_.

She briefly remembers how she slipped back into consciousness for a moment after she'd thought she was done. Vision slanted by her addled state, registering that she was swaying above ground, and wondering, at last, _d_ _id he kill_ _me?_ No, if she were dead, she wouldn't be hearing a man's sobbing - _Jimmy's_ sobbing - as he carried her down the hall. Through the clash of her brain, his voice melted into a funeral dirge. _What does he have to cry about?_ He shifted her into one arm, lifted a knee to support her, as he reached out to fix something - something she couldn't see. Oh, _god_ , she remembers the jolt at that unexpected contact of his body on hers, how even in the state was was in she knew something awful had been done to her. _Everything burns_ , she thought, before she finally slipped back into sleep's safe arms.

So he brought her down here. He brought her down to the kitchen so he could finish the job. But he isn't _here_ , she knows it. Maya turns her head to the side and vomits. _What can I do?_ Futile as she knows it is, she lurches to her knees and begins to crawl to the door, dragging herself by her elbows. Every foot of progress she makes is soured by the complaint of her used up, worn out body. The grace period of relief from her head trauma is over; with every movement, black phosphenes pepper the edges of her vision, threatening to swallow her up. She can hear her breath come in gasps, horrible strangled pain-noises that don't sound like hers. She raises her arm and wipes her mouth with her sleeve. _Come on, Maya. You've lived through this. You can live through anything._

At the door, she collapses. Lying face down on the floor, she allows herself the luxury of a single dry sob that wracks her body. _You have to move, sweetheart._ Maya didn't realise it before, but she's taken to speaking to herself in her mother's voice. 

It is a miracle that she finds her way to her feet and leans her whole body against the door so she doesn't fall. She rattles the handle, but it doesn't give.

So she's locked in. So he's keeping her down here while he prepares the means to finish her off.

Maya vomits again, the last of the food in her stomach, and the force of turning her body fells her until she meets a wall and holds herself there. Finding a little stability on her wobbling knees, she feels her way along it until she finds the counter, and opens eyes she didn't realised were squeezed tight. In front of her is another tray, piled with food. She pokes a finger into the scrambled eggs. Stone cold. She tries a sausage. Still holding a little warmth. Recent.

Is this another of Jimmy's little apologies? The outrage is as sour in Maya's throat as the bile was. _Oh,_ she thinks. _Oh._ Jimmy isn't going to kill her. He's going to do whatever he can to keep her alive so he can toy with her, forever. He's been dragging her around this hotel for god knows how long just because he... what? _Cares for her?_ No fucking chance. This isn't care. This is... _selfishness_. This is her unbearable state of perpetual pain being worth it as long as Jimmy gets to have her. Do what he wants with her. 

For a moment, for the first time seriously in her life, Maya considers ending it.

 _No_. She has too much to give. She has a duty here. Whether or not Jimmy thinks he cares for her, she knows she has people she cares for. People in this hotel. People she knows how to find, and where to find them.

There's nothing to distract herself with, nothing to push aside. This is it. This is her chance to get everyone out alive. But she's so- she might as well admit it, now - she's so _scared_. She has never felt so young. The world is too big for her. She is in a scary place, locked in by a frightening man, and he is bound to come for her, do her some sort of harm. She's as scared as a child.

Maya crouches, arms resting on her knees, her head in the well her limbs created. She almost doesn't notice the flicker of the lights above her. In an instant, she's fumbling for the spirit device. "Hello? Hello?" Her voice is weak from disuse, and strained with desperation. She's about ready to scream when the familiar, soft-spoken voice crackles to life.

"Hello?"

She could weep. "Oh, Dr. Bose, it's you!" For some reason, she's on the verge of tears. Maybe it's the soft, slight warmth infiltrating the room at the sound of his voice, enveloping her the way she thought nothing could here.

"Oh dear, were you looking for somebody else? If you like, I can take a moment and see if any of the others are around,"

"No, no, I'm fine. Dr. Bose, it's Maya."

"Is this the same young lady I spoke to before?" She hears the tone grow stern. "Why are you still here?"

This is what sends Maya over the edge. "I- Jimmy found me," she says, and then bursts into tears. As she cries, she hears a gentle tut, the voice softening through the haze of the device. 

"Oh, poor child. But you're safe now. He's not here now."

"No but he..." - a pause to gulp - "he locked me in. He's going to come and find me. I can't take this anymore. I can't keep running and hiding. He always finds me, in the end."

The warmth grows a little stronger around her, pulsing like the faint heat of a candle flame. She cranes her head up towards it, aching for that softness on her face, gulping as if she has tilted her head above water while drowning.

"Maya, you need to breathe, alright? I want you to breathe for me. In for seven, hold for seven, out for seven. Can you do that for me?"

Maya nods as if he can see her, gasps in the air as best she can. As she holds the breath and releases it, she could swear that the light is pulsing in time with her breathing. That the warmth grows a little stronger, pressing against her.

"You're doing very well. Keep going. Clear your head. It's imperative that you get yourself ready to act clearly."

She nods again. "Dr. Bose, I can't leave. I can't help my friends. How am I supposed to act? Fight back? I can- I can barely _walk_."

"You see, this may be difficult to believe, but he you're not here because he wants to fight you. I do believe he wants to _protect_ you. I suggest you use that to your advantage."

" _How_ , Doctor? I don't understand," she pleads, begging for time.

"You'll know. You will. You're a smart girl. Take care, Maya."

"Dr. Bose!" She cries into the device, but it's still in her hands. The room is deathly cold once more.

Maya sits solemnly, staring blankly at the wall. _Doomed,_ she thinks, _I'm doomed_. 

Only she's not. Because that's when her eyes lift above her head, searching for any means of escape, and that's when she locks onto the tray, piled high with food, a gesture of kindness. And she sees it with new eyes. Her brain, soothed by the regenerated flow of oxygen, begins to whirr. She came here with five friends. That's six people she's going to get out of here.

Her eyes back on the tray, she crawls over and grabs it, sweeping all of the food from it, wielding it in her hands. All she needs to do now is to bide her time. Another thing Jimmy has trained her for perfectly.

* 

Silence on the first floor, save the wheeze of one man's exerted breath and the final slowing of another's. Jimmy lurches into the en suite bathroom and switches on the light, fixing his visage in the mirror with a look of distaste, hoping the thing entwined with him will see the loathing in his eyes. His knuckles are white from gripping the bat. His nails are caked in five young women's drying blood. _This is it_ , he thinks to himself, _this is every obstruction taken care of. Now it's only me and you, Maya. Now we can take care of things the way we ought to._

Looking at his hands, he notices they are trembling. He remembers supporting Maya in them, the last time he saw her. He remembers them preparing everything she might want to nourish her. He remembers Maya crying out at their doing, her own two up to protect herself, the wrists crossed as if bound by an invisible tie. How they tried to catch his own wrists, hold him off. How he overpowered her. How it was all he could do not to collapse beside her and weep into her hair when it was done. _Enough._

 _This time is over._ Now he can tend to her properly. Now things will be better. He knows it; he even leaves his bat neatly in the draw of this final room. She will be waiting for him, of course. But he can show her that things can be better. He can show her how to appreciate everything he's done for her, for them. He can teach her how to harness that _fire_ in her.

He's never brought a nice girl home to his mother before. As he punches in the right button on the lift to send him back down to the basement, he wonders if this will finally be enough to make her proud.

*

By the time Maya has laid out her plan, in full, she fears it is too late; he is almost on her. Jimmy unlocks the kitchen door, and even before it is open he's calling for her in a sweet, bright voice. She has to act fast. He enters slowly; she knows he is looking around the room for where she could be, will turn to anger and begin to search if she doesn't do it _now_ \- and so she does it. Moving as stably as she can, steadying herself on feet barely grounded, she swings the tray hard into Jimmy's chest. For a second, she panics - she missed, oh shit, oh _shit_ , he's going to kill her now if he wasn't before - but the blow has the desired effect, sending him to the floor, too surprised to cry out. This is all Maya needs. Moving so fast her vision blacks out momentarily, she leaps over where he lies prone and flees.

She runs as if she is a shark, as if she has no choice but to keep running, as if ceasing to run will kill her. As she rounds the corner and barrels into the elevator, at the exact moment Jimmy staggers to his feet, her heart takes hold of her throat. This is it. This is _her_ turn to hunt.

 _Be brave, Maya,_ she repeats to herself, as if bravery alone has ever been enough to save her.


End file.
